I think the crazy guy was "Floki" unless I had wax in my ears. Loving history, vikings, etc, so this show seems great so far. Any of you ever watch Rome? Or Spartacus? The Tudors? They are probably not as "accurate" as a History Channel show, but good stuff if you like ancient times, violence, and copious amounts of T&A.

I saw part of episode 2 and from what I saw it looked kinda bad... and that's coming from a huge game of thrones fan. The part I saw was of a viking group basically going into a stronghold and just slaughtering a group of people who were just kneeling down, totally defenseless. I don't know if I can like a show where the protagonists just slaughter defenseless civilians. Kinda unappetizing, but did I just catch it a bad time? Should I give it another shot?

Except that "slaughter of innocent civilians" is a true story, as the very first viking raid outside of Northern Europe was the slaughter of monks in a monastery in England. This show is fictionalized but based around true events.

Regardless of the trigger, the Norse people started moving outwards from Scandinavia at the end of the 8th century, interacting with and making their mark upon other Europeans. The start of this movement defines the beginning of the Viking age.

The first recorded Viking raid occurred in the year 793, against the great monastery of Lindisfarne off the northeast coast of England. The grave marker from Lindisfarne shown to the left records that attack.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (a contemporary history of the Anglo-Saxon people) for that year reads:

In this year dire portents appeared over Northumbria and sorely frightened the people. They consisted of immense whirlwinds and flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine immediately followed these signs, and a little after that in the same year, on 8 June, the ravages of heathen men miserably destroyed God's church on Lindisfarne, with plunder and slaughter.

The attack sent shock waves throughout Europe: why had God allowed such a holy place to be defiled by pagans?

Monasteries were frequent targets of Norse raiders not because the raiders were particularly anti-Christian, but rather because that's where the money was. The tithes collected by the church concentrated the wealth in the monasteries during this period. The raiders recognized that fact and took advantage of it.

Me too! In fact, my grandmother's genealogy work was able to track my fathers side back to a known Viking "berserker" who was rather famous for running into battles and villages screaming while wearing nothing except his weapon. Explains a lot about my son, actually.

Me too! In fact, my grandmother's genealogy work was able to track my fathers side back to a known Viking "berserker" who was rather famous for running into battles and villages screaming while wearing nothing except his weapon. Explains a lot about my son, actually.

That's awesome.

Apparently my maternal grandfather (who was born and raised in Norway) used to claim quite emphatically that he was a descentant of Eric the Red. Absolutely no way to prove it, and it was quite possibly just some BS, but I like to think it's true. My paternal grandmother (who was born in Iceland) apparently claimed to be related to Leif Ericson, who was of course Eric's son (clever Vikings... "who's kid is this? Oh, that's Eric's son" lol).

There was a little tidbit on the History Channel about a real Viking that was called Skull Splitter. It doesn't take much imagination to figure out how he earned the name. Another was thought odd and laughed at because he wouldn't kill children. Like pirates there is a certain amount of romanticism involved. It was a brutal time for everyone.